Speedy, J.

'Research methods: writing as Inquiry: some ideas, practices, opportu

nities and constraints', Counselling and psychotherapy research, 5/1, (pp. 63-64
), 2005. ISSN: 1473-3145
Research methods: Writing as Inquiry: some ideas, practices, opportunities
and constraints.

This paper extends the construct of writing as a methodological approach

(employed within the accompanying text ‘failing to come to terms with things’)
and suggests ways in which this form of scholarship might be particularly
pertinent to counselling and psychotherapy research.

‘ So this is part of my work. It is situated in the musical and silent environme

nt of
the text that produces effects in
my writing. It is because I hear
writing write.’
(Hélène Cixous, 1997: 67)

All research studies require some kind of representation to their audiences such
as films, written texts, posters or other forms of visual portrayal or oral
presentation (live or taped). All texts, such as those in this journal, are edit
ed,
selected, pruned and spruced in order to draw the eyes of the reader towards
certain spaces. (Note the textboxes scattered throughout this journal, not unlik
e
Cixous’s experimental text above, that highlight ‘what this study tells us’ and
‘what this study is about’. Whose voice is that? How and why does this voice
draw your attention towards and away from aspects of the text?)
Writing as a form of inquiry (as opposed to the ‘writing up’, a kind of mopping
up
process at the end of an otherwise apparently already completed study) makes
these representational practices as explicit and transparent as possible. It is
a
form of research that uses writing both as a research tool or craft in its own r
ight
and/or as a method of re-presenting the words of participants. This is not new
either in the world of counselling or of research, wherein there is a history of
experimental journal keeping (see: Johns, 1996) for both personal and
professional purposes. Arts and humanities-based research has always
sustained a tradition of ‘messy’ texts, ranging from artists sketchbooks to
experimental performance, writing and film (see: Trinh, 1999).

Despite the multidisciplinary origins of its practitioners, counselling and

psychotherapy research for the most part remains captured by the discourses of
‘scientific report writing’ that have, for several centuries, set themselves apa
rt
from more literary or writerly texts. The report style of writing presents itsel
f ‘as if’
the ‘worded world’, the ‘studied world’ and the ‘lived world’ are more or less
This is how I write: As
if the secret that is in
me were before me.

accurate translations of each other. To this day the notable exceptions to this,
such as Yalom’s case studies (see: Yalom, 1991, for instance) or Miller Mair’s
(1989) seminal ‘poetics of experience’, are few and far between.
Ideas informing writing as Inquiry
Post-modernity has eaten away at the edges of authoritative traditions and has
given many of us a space in which to speak with less authority about smaller
parcels of knowledge-in-context and to tell more local stories. Post-structurali
sm,
post colonialism, feminism and queer studies are particular kinds of thinking th
at
have encouraged traditions of ‘writing as inquiry’. Post-structuralism (see: Bel
sey:
2002, for an overview) in particular, links and explores the relationships betwe
en
human beings, their worlds and their practices of making or reproducing
meanings through language (whether spoken, written, performed or envisioned).
All these ideas have influenced contemporary forms of counselling practice, such
as narrative and discursive approaches and Lacanian analysis. Thus far,
counselling research is still playing catch up with educational, sociological an
d
anthropological and feminist studies in respect of producing creative,
experimental ‘research texts in progress’.
Writing as inquiry is an attempt to capture the reader’s attention and engage
them in conversation. It assumes and articulates a reflexive, situated researche
r
stance, but does not necessarily dwell there. It assumes and expresses a
curiosity or even a thirst for knowledge about the contents of the study, but ha
s
no illusions that this might speak for itself. It leaves much unsaid, uncertain,
and
incomplete. It is, at best, a balancing act between form and content. It is ofte
n
playful, often poetic, often experimental and often fictionalised. It tends towa
rds
distillation and description rather than explanation or analysis. It is best
performed by those with a love of language and with the patience and resilience
to spend time a lot of time writing and re-writing and re-writing their work. Ab
ove
all, it attempts to provide sufficient substance to contribute towards scholarsh
ip in
the field as well as sufficient space to engage the reader’s imagination.
Richardson (2001:888), a performance poet, turned educational researcher,
distilled hours of conversation with Louisa May, for example, into the lines:

‘It was purely chance

that I got a job here
and Robert didn’t. I was mildly happy.

After 14 years of marriage, that was the break.

We divorced.

A normal sort of life’

Various practices of writing as research

Poetic and experimental representation of research participants is by no means
the only style of ‘writing as research’ available to us (see: Richardson, 2000 f
or a
comprehensive overview): experimentation with font, layout, spacing and voices
may occur in a variety of different texts. Narrative researchers may tell the sa
me
story from a range of different positions (see: Etherington, 2003). Performative
ethnographers may produce plays giving voices to a range of characters both
real and imagined (see: Gergen, 2001). Layered accounts may differentiate
between different kinds of writing within the same text. In the text that follow
s this
is done by dividing different writing genres into parallel columns and inviting
people to experiment with their reading. In Ronai’s work (1998) chunks of text a
re
differentiated with spaces or lines across the page. These include layers of
personal narrative, vivid description and theoretical discussion.
In Lather and Smithies (1997) award winning book ‘Troubling the Angels’ the
words of women with HIV/aids appear across the top two thirds of the pages.
Pertinent literature from the field appears in text boxes throughout the book an
d
commentaries from the researchers appear across the bottom third of the page.
Similarly Helene Cixous’s (1997) account of her family history and the impact of
the holocaust, includes extracts from interviews with her co-author, intersperse
d
with key phrases written in different fonts and placed in boxes throughout the
text, as well as photographic images, poetry, time lines, short stories and more
traditional academic prose. Experiments in hypertext form a recent addition to
this repertoire. In Wanda Pillow’s (2000) text, for example, writing is divided
into
a series of separate windows connected with hypertext links. This allows the
reader to rearrange and move through the text in any order, whenever they want.

Opportunities and constraints for counselling researchers

This kind of work disrupts assumptions about written forms and about linearity.
It
takes us by surprise as readers and writers and shapes our experience in
different ways than we might have expected. Lather (1997:41) described her
experience as a writer, as one of being immersed in a ‘a text that is as much
trying to write me as the other way round.’ At best this work forms a written
equivalent to contemporary arts installations that surprise; that stay in our mi
nd’s
eyes and make a difference to how we see the world and maybe even to our
future actions within it. These pieces are attempting to trouble and/or to delig
ht,
to tell incomplete and/or non commensurate stories, to provoke more questions
than answers and to have the audience ‘reaching towards a place where
knowing and not-knowing touch’ (Cixous, 1993, p38)
There are parallels between these research modalities and the conversational
territories inhabited by counsellors, psychotherapists and the people consulting
them. Tentative explorations into uncharted waters often characterise both these
domains. This kind of arts-based research is best suited to small intimate studi
es
and provides descriptive, evocative evidence of the particularities of
conversational practice. It illustrates and suggests but it does not explain or
evaluate. As such, it is not intended as a replacement for, as an alternative to
, or
as an oppositional force pitted against more traditional positivist studies
exploring, for example, evidence-based practice. In an era when previously
strongly held disciplinary boundaries are becoming blurred and challenged,
‘writing as inquiry’ extends the repertoire of available research genres. It is
an
approach that is likely to appeal more to, and perhaps be conducted more by,
practitioners and clients than by policymakers, agencies and health care trusts.
Nonetheless, as attention to the art and craft of writing becomes a more
legitimate consideration within some sectors of counselling research, the whole
field may become more concerned with writing in engaging and interesting ways.
What now follows is one of my own attempts to do so, which, like much of my
work, has been written and re-written many times but still fails to live up to m
y
hopes and expectations. I will be interested to discover what you all think of i
t.
References:
Belsey, C. (2002) Post-Structuralism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford
University Press, Oxford
Cixous, H. (1993) Three Steps On The Ladder Of Writing. New York: Columbia
University Press.
Cixous, H and Calle-Gruber, M (1997) Rootprints: memory and life writing,
Routledge, London
Etherington, (2003) The Weaver’s Tale: Yarns and Threads, In: K. Etherington
(Ed.) Trauma, the Body and Transformation, Jessica Kingsley, London.
Gergen, M (2001) Feminist Reconstructions In Psychology, Narrative Gender And Pe
rformance, Sage,
Thousand Oaks.
Johns, H (1996) Personal Development in Counselling Training, Cassell,
London.
Lather, P and Smithies, C (1997) Troubling the Angels: women living with
HIV/AIDS, Westview, Boulder, Co.
Richardson, L (2000) Writing: A Method Of Inquiry, In: Denzin N.K And Lincoln,
Y.S. (Eds) (2nd Ed.) Handbook Of Qualitative Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks,
CA.
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Researcher/Erotic Dancer, In: Qualitative Inquiry, 4(3) 405-420
Trinh, M(1999) Cinematic Intervals, Routledge, New York
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